Parque Nacional Tayrona
30 August 2005 (Tuesday) – 31 August 2005 (Wednesday) – Parque Nacional Tayrona, Colombia
On the bus out to the national park, I spotted 2 tourists and asked if I could join them on the hike. Yep, sure… They were a married couple – Valery from Switzerland and Masami from Japan. Later at the park entrance, we met more tourists – Helena from Netherlands and her two young charges, Bleidee and Angela from Colombia. Great, we were six.
Valery and Masami were travelling around South America for a year and had started the trip about 2 or 3 months ago. Helena was currently on a volunteer project for a radio station and she had been here in Colombia for 6 to 7 weeks. However, she had previously worked in Colombia for 1 year, so she knew the country pretty well. As for her two teenage charges, where did Helena find them? Well, she had interviewed the director of a school for the radio station and at the end, she had asked the director for two girls whom she would like to invite to go to Parque Nacional Tayrona together. So, the director somehow chose these two. Wow, that was very nice of Helena. These girls were from humble backgrounds so it would have been very difficult for them to travel around.
We took a minivan from the park entrance to a campsite about 4km away. From here, one could rent horses or walk for 45 to 50 minutes to the first proper beach campsite, Arrecifes. We walked, of course.
It was funny and rather nice that although Valery, Masami and I spoke English much better, all of us chose to communicate in Spanish, using the wrong words, wrong conjugations, wrong tenses, just because. We chatted, together with Helena and the girls, getting to know one another. The trail was not difficult, just muddy, and it was in the shade of the jungle and very soon, we reached the campsite at Arrecifes.
At Arrecifes, we could see the ocean. To my surprise, it was the first time for Bleidee and Angela to see the ocean! And boy, were they lucky, for this was a very beautiful beach with huge boulders strewn carelessly by the sides!
The water here was too dangerous for swimming. We just had a rest and wetted our feet. Anyway, we chose not to stay here, for there was another campsite about 50 minutes away.
We walked along the beach and soon reached La Piscina, a natural swimming pool. Here, we could swim, as by pure luck, there was a series of rocks in the distance that had broken the waves up so the water was nice and calm.
Wow, this was absolute paradise. At the moment, there was no one else except us on this beach. As I looked down at the water, wow… I felt as if I was in gelatin! The water was very warm and very very clear, for an ocean. I could see the sand and rocks right at the bottom although the water was right up to my neck! And the gigantic boulders carelessly thrown all around the beach… wow, they were awesome!!! I mean, I had visited many, many beaches already and although the beach here was not the longest, neither did it have the finest sand, it was absolutely breathtaking!!!! Truly, one of the most memorable beaches I had ever experienced.
Finally, we felt compelled to peel ourselves from this beach and hike some more to the next campsite El Cabo. Valery and Masami wanted to stay on further, so I left with Helena and the girls.
It turned out the beaches at El Cabo was even prettier! Of course, there were more tourists here, but gosh… all around us were just amazing boulders and sand. We rented hammocks and a guy helped us put them up. All the others had never slept in a hammock before. So, ahem… as the most experienced hammock-sleeper amongst us, I gave them some helpful tips, haha.
There was even a mirador at the top of one group of boulders. This was the closest I had ever been to paradise, I think. What a view from here! As the sun was going down, we looked on with concern at the approaching dark clouds and feared a storm tonight.
Well, a storm did come that night. The wind blew, the rain splashed right in, the hammocks swayed ferociously but it was over in 15 minutes. Wow, amazing!
The next day, after breakfast, we got ready for our hike up to Pueblito. This is a small archaeological site at the top of the mountains, just about 1.5 hours from here.
The hike was mainly clambering up boulders after boulders up the mountain. Boy, were the teenage Colombian girls spunky! They were right in front the whole time! Many times, we would reach a really challenging boulder, with seemingly no way to climb up. But the young girls would have already climbed up there and were ready to lend a hand to yank us up one by one. How did they do it? I kept expressing my surprise by their strength and dexterity. They laughed, saying that the Colombians always find solutions to a problem. If they cannot find solutions to a problem, then it is not a problem. How true!!
After 1.5 hours of very very ardous hike for me (yep, I really admit age is catching up on me), we reached Pueblito. By chance, there was another pair of Spanish toutists who had just arrived with their guide. So, we could listen a little to the guide’s explanation of the Tayrona Indians and their culture. However, I did not understand much.
There was a small family of Tayrona Indians living here, taking care of the ruins, but we should not take pictures of them. We just spotted some of the children wearing white tunics running around in the distance, or sitting shyly behind a tree.
When we were back at El Cabo, Helena, the girls and I immediately headed right to the beach for a well-deserved dip. I was hot, very sweaty, and extremely exhausted, I slept very well under the palm tree for an hour at least.
We finally departed from El Cabo at around 4:30pm. It was 50 minutes’ walk to Arrecifes and another 50 minutes’ walk to the place where the minivan had dropped us yesterday. By then, it had turned very dark. Barely able to see, I had made some mistakes on the muddy path so my feet were caked in mud. Someone got a van to come pick us up. Gosh, it was absolutely pitch-dark by then, we could not even see our hands in front of our face. And yet, we even managed to pick up a woman walking alone along the 4km road to the park entrance! Where did she come from?
Valery and Masami returned to Taganga, another town before Santa Marta, by hitch-hiking… and Helena, the girls and I took a bus back to Santa Marta. We finally had our dinner at 9:30pm, my first meal after the morning’s shared breakfast of fruits! It was indeed an incredibly beautiful trip! I certainly recommend people to visit this magical place.
Tags: 06) Colombia Connection
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